Absolver - slcp_vanguard
Hi everyone!

We’ve pushed the 1.13 update to PC (Steam & GOG), PS4 version will be up shortly. There are a lot of changes in terms of gameplay in this version of Absolver, below you will find detailed explanations on these updates. The patch notes can be found at the bottom of the post.

New Game Details
First of all we wanted to shed some light on how some systems work in Absolver.
In the attributes panel, you can now see how your Combat Style bonuses impact your attribute points. It will make it easier for you to manage your attribute points and see where the soft caps start.



We also added a detailed version of each attack’s parameters and you can access in the attacks list panel. It features values such as range, impact on guard, stamina cost, advantage frames on hit (in gold link), etc.
We hope you’ll like it.




Gameplay Updates
Now in terms of gameplay changes, we focused on allowing more viable options to the builds you create.

Firstly, we reduced the Combat Style attribute bonuses. They were too high and did not allow you to make really meaningful choices. Now, having 2 attributes at max value will have a strong impact on the other ones.
We also increased the number of attacks having damage scaling to have strength, dexterity, and mobility become more viable attributes.

Secondly, we balanced most of the attacks. Keep in mind that because attacks can be used in different contexts (before or after any attack, with different combat styles, etc.), we need to take into account the whole roster of attacks to balance them properly. So when we work on balancing, it can impact all the attacks.

Other important point: we have fixed a nasty bug that sped up 17 attacks (including Back Tripped Kick, Double Fist Stretch and Grab Punch) and slowed down 17 others (like Spinning Wide Hook and Collar Chop) under specific conditions linked to absorb.

The main change is that we now define the gold link release value specifically for all attacks (previously it was set depending on the attack damage), and as such, we nerfed the gold link release value of fast avoid attacks and most of the fast sword attacks.
Fast avoid attacks, like Jumped Light Kick or Back Tripped Kick, were overused compared to normal fast attacks. By impacting their release value we hope to fix this. For info, their damage and damage scaling ability were already lower than normal attacks.
We applied the same kind of gold link adjustment to fast sword attacks to slowdown the pacing of the sword a bit and allow more predictability.
As a consequence, damage computation does not take the normal release in account anymore, but the gold link one. This change affects all the attacks.
For instance, Stagger Style attacks such as Hadrunken, Handstand Kick, and Donkey Slap have lost 10-15% of their damage, and attacks such as Cross Punch, Pulmonary Palm, Bending Palm have gained 10% of damage.

Thirdly, we made a move towards creating more combat variety by making the weapons more reliable.
We increased the durability & disarm gauge of all weapons as well as the disarm regen overtime when you are holding the weapon. This means that weapons will break less, and it will be harder to disarm opponents. On top of that, folding back your weapon now gives you back an amount of shards depending on the shard cost of the weapon and its current durability ratio.
We think that these changes will create more strategy around sheathing and getting back a lost weapon.

Lastly, we worked on balancing Combat Styles.

The datas we have show that Kahlt users have the biggest win ratio (59%), followed by Forsaken (51%), Windfall (47%), and then Stagger (42%).

We decided to try out some changes until we extract and analyze more detailed datas (skill rating, combat deck, etc.).

Stagger:
We added a bonus effect lasting 5s when a Stagger character avoids an attack with any avoiding attack (including its own special attacks). This bonus effect gives “stamina regen x1.2”, “actions stamina cost x0.8”, and is stackable (similarly to the bonus effect given by the Kahlt absorb).
We also increased the “stun on hit” of the stagger special attacks, and a little bit of their range.

Windfall:
We increased the stamina gain on avoid successfull (35 -> 40), and the slowdown when avoided.

Kahlt:
We added freeze frames (6 frames) on the attacker when “absorbed”. After the freeze frames, the attacker can still perform a gold link attack. It’s a slight buff against fast light attacks but will have no real impact on medium/strong attacks.
In return, these freeze frames force the Kahlt player to perform his ability twice against double-hit attacks.
We also doubled the stamina cost of the absorb ability (5 -> 10)

That’s it for balancing.

Besides that, we increased the impact of every attacks on guard to lessen “turtle-strategy” behaviours.

Thank you for your support, and please let us know what you think of these changes!

Find the full patch notes here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1693785669851807139/
Absolver - slcp_vanguard
Hi everyone!

We’ve pushed the 1.13 update to PC (Steam & GOG), PS4 version will be up shortly. There are a lot of changes in terms of gameplay in this version of Absolver, below you will find detailed explanations on these updates. The patch notes can be found at the bottom of the post.

New Game Details
First of all we wanted to shed some light on how some systems work in Absolver.
In the attributes panel, you can now see how your Combat Style bonuses impact your attribute points. It will make it easier for you to manage your attribute points and see where the soft caps start.



We also added a detailed version of each attack’s parameters and you can access in the attacks list panel. It features values such as range, impact on guard, stamina cost, advantage frames on hit (in gold link), etc.
We hope you’ll like it.




Gameplay Updates
Now in terms of gameplay changes, we focused on allowing more viable options to the builds you create.

Firstly, we reduced the Combat Style attribute bonuses. They were too high and did not allow you to make really meaningful choices. Now, having 2 attributes at max value will have a strong impact on the other ones.
We also increased the number of attacks having damage scaling to have strength, dexterity, and mobility become more viable attributes.

Secondly, we balanced most of the attacks. Keep in mind that because attacks can be used in different contexts (before or after any attack, with different combat styles, etc.), we need to take into account the whole roster of attacks to balance them properly. So when we work on balancing, it can impact all the attacks.

Other important point: we have fixed a nasty bug that sped up 17 attacks (including Back Tripped Kick, Double Fist Stretch and Grab Punch) and slowed down 17 others (like Spinning Wide Hook and Collar Chop) under specific conditions linked to absorb.

The main change is that we now define the gold link release value specifically for all attacks (previously it was set depending on the attack damage), and as such, we nerfed the gold link release value of fast avoid attacks and most of the fast sword attacks.
Fast avoid attacks, like Jumped Light Kick or Back Tripped Kick, were overused compared to normal fast attacks. By impacting their release value we hope to fix this. For info, their damage and damage scaling ability were already lower than normal attacks.
We applied the same kind of gold link adjustment to fast sword attacks to slowdown the pacing of the sword a bit and allow more predictability.
As a consequence, damage computation does not take the normal release in account anymore, but the gold link one. This change affects all the attacks.
For instance, Stagger Style attacks such as Hadrunken, Handstand Kick, and Donkey Slap have lost 10-15% of their damage, and attacks such as Cross Punch, Pulmonary Palm, Bending Palm have gained 10% of damage.

Thirdly, we made a move towards creating more combat variety by making the weapons more reliable.
We increased the durability & disarm gauge of all weapons as well as the disarm regen overtime when you are holding the weapon. This means that weapons will break less, and it will be harder to disarm opponents. On top of that, folding back your weapon now gives you back an amount of shards depending on the shard cost of the weapon and its current durability ratio.
We think that these changes will create more strategy around sheathing and getting back a lost weapon.

Lastly, we worked on balancing Combat Styles.

The datas we have show that Kahlt users have the biggest win ratio (59%), followed by Forsaken (51%), Windfall (47%), and then Stagger (42%).

We decided to try out some changes until we extract and analyze more detailed datas (skill rating, combat deck, etc.).

Stagger:
We added a bonus effect lasting 5s when a Stagger character avoids an attack with any avoiding attack (including its own special attacks). This bonus effect gives “stamina regen x1.2”, “actions stamina cost x0.8”, and is stackable (similarly to the bonus effect given by the Kahlt absorb).
We also increased the “stun on hit” of the stagger special attacks, and a little bit of their range.

Windfall:
We increased the stamina gain on avoid successfull (35 -> 40), and the slowdown when avoided.

Kahlt:
We added freeze frames (6 frames) on the attacker when “absorbed”. After the freeze frames, the attacker can still perform a gold link attack. It’s a slight buff against fast light attacks but will have no real impact on medium/strong attacks.
In return, these freeze frames force the Kahlt player to perform his ability twice against double-hit attacks.
We also doubled the stamina cost of the absorb ability (5 -> 10)

That’s it for balancing.

Besides that, we increased the impact of every attacks on guard to lessen “turtle-strategy” behaviours.

Thank you for your support, and please let us know what you think of these changes!

Find the full patch notes here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1693785669851807139/
Absolver - br33dlove


Absolver 1.11 is now live with the new 3v3 Overtake mode headlining the new features introduced! The team has been working very hard these past weeks on getting the 3v3 "Overtake" game mode ready for the Absolver community and we're very happy to share it with you today. As you'll notice, the Overtake game mode is still in beta, as we are still fixing some issues, but it is already really fun and we've been having a great time playtesting it at the studio! Other improvements in this update include 1v1 Private Games, a new Shop for equipment, weapons and emotes, full 21:9 monitor support, equipment color dye, as well as the ability to rematch directly from the post-match Combat Trial screen, both in 1v1 and 3v3. Complete release notes are below.

https://youtu.be/INcPum0QFqw

Absolver will be featured from today until Monday morning as the Steam Weekend Deal with a 50% off discount with the goal of inviting many new players into the ranks of Absolvers. We will need your help in getting the word out on this update, so if you enjoy the game and the recent updates, please share the news to friends: we need as many Prospects as possible on the plains of Adal!

We've also been closely monitoring player feedback on forums and social media, although we haven't had time to respond to all your requests and concerns. Sorry for not communicating a lot recently, but next week we will share with everyone more news on our roadmap, and the upcoming improvements that we are planning to implement to Absolver in future updates.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support, and please let us know what you think about this new game mode!

All the best,
Sloclap team


Full release notes: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1500126447387495353/
Absolver - br33dlove


Absolver 1.11 is now live with the new 3v3 Overtake mode headlining the new features introduced! The team has been working very hard these past weeks on getting the 3v3 "Overtake" game mode ready for the Absolver community and we're very happy to share it with you today. As you'll notice, the Overtake game mode is still in beta, as we are still fixing some issues, but it is already really fun and we've been having a great time playtesting it at the studio! Other improvements in this update include 1v1 Private Games, a new Shop for equipment, weapons and emotes, full 21:9 monitor support, equipment color dye, as well as the ability to rematch directly from the post-match Combat Trial screen, both in 1v1 and 3v3. Complete release notes are below.

https://youtu.be/INcPum0QFqw

Absolver will be featured from today until Monday morning as the Steam Weekend Deal with a 50% off discount with the goal of inviting many new players into the ranks of Absolvers. We will need your help in getting the word out on this update, so if you enjoy the game and the recent updates, please share the news to friends: we need as many Prospects as possible on the plains of Adal!

We've also been closely monitoring player feedback on forums and social media, although we haven't had time to respond to all your requests and concerns. Sorry for not communicating a lot recently, but next week we will share with everyone more news on our roadmap, and the upcoming improvements that we are planning to implement to Absolver in future updates.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support, and please let us know what you think about this new game mode!

All the best,
Sloclap team


Full release notes: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1500126447387495353/
Oct 26, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove


https://youtu.be/9qAwXUmPP24

The main objective of this update is to start giving better long term rewards for players who invest time and effort in Combat Trials:


The loot system has been reworked with the introduction of Rift Coins and Rift Disks: magical artifacts that will give items of various rarity levels.

The Prestige system will give rewards to players beyond level 60: Crystals are awarded at each Prestige level, which can be used to reassign Attribute Points and buy Rift Disks. Prestige levels are also displayed in Combat Trials intro videos.

We have updated the inventory with a new “sort” and “salvage” features allowing players to better manage their inventory and convert equipment pieces into Fragments, which can then be used to repair equipment i.e. convert “Aged” into “New”

This update is only a first step; we will develop these new systems further in the weeks to come, with other uses for Crystals and Fragments to be introduced: changing colors of equipment, purchasing specific items, changing the character’s appearance, acquiring new emotes…

Further down the line, we will also implement systems for competitive players, with leaderboards and ranked games - we are still working on the exact plans for this, but we will update as soon as we know more!

The art team has also kept busy, with new equipment sets, Absolver capes, and 6 new Halloween-inspired masks, dropped by Marked Ones, and also found in Rift Disks. To go with the spirit of the season, we have also created new temporary “night” settings for PvP maps! Since our last update we have also put a lot of effort into fixing as many bugs and issues as possible, mostly related to gameplay and network connection. Full release patch notes are below with additional details.

Two more things:
The game will be at a 20% discount on Steam for the duration of the Halloween sale, so if you have friends who were hesitant about getting the game, you can tell them that now might be a good time :)
We know that many players want to know when the 3v3 game mode is going to be released: we won’t give a precise date today, but it will be in November for sure, and we should give a more precise timing in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Thanks for your support,
Sloclap Team



Full Patch Notes in Discussion Forum post: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1480982338946635274/
Oct 26, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove


https://youtu.be/9qAwXUmPP24

The main objective of this update is to start giving better long term rewards for players who invest time and effort in Combat Trials:


The loot system has been reworked with the introduction of Rift Coins and Rift Disks: magical artifacts that will give items of various rarity levels.

The Prestige system will give rewards to players beyond level 60: Crystals are awarded at each Prestige level, which can be used to reassign Attribute Points and buy Rift Disks. Prestige levels are also displayed in Combat Trials intro videos.

We have updated the inventory with a new “sort” and “salvage” features allowing players to better manage their inventory and convert equipment pieces into Fragments, which can then be used to repair equipment i.e. convert “Aged” into “New”

This update is only a first step; we will develop these new systems further in the weeks to come, with other uses for Crystals and Fragments to be introduced: changing colors of equipment, purchasing specific items, changing the character’s appearance, acquiring new emotes…

Further down the line, we will also implement systems for competitive players, with leaderboards and ranked games - we are still working on the exact plans for this, but we will update as soon as we know more!

The art team has also kept busy, with new equipment sets, Absolver capes, and 6 new Halloween-inspired masks, dropped by Marked Ones, and also found in Rift Disks. To go with the spirit of the season, we have also created new temporary “night” settings for PvP maps! Since our last update we have also put a lot of effort into fixing as many bugs and issues as possible, mostly related to gameplay and network connection. Full release patch notes are below with additional details.

Two more things:
The game will be at a 20% discount on Steam for the duration of the Halloween sale, so if you have friends who were hesitant about getting the game, you can tell them that now might be a good time :)
We know that many players want to know when the 3v3 game mode is going to be released: we won’t give a precise date today, but it will be in November for sure, and we should give a more precise timing in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Thanks for your support,
Sloclap Team



Full Patch Notes in Discussion Forum post: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1480982338946635274/
Sep 22, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove
As you know, the 1.06 update was pushed on Wednesday, and while some changes were beneficial to the experience, others negatively impacted it.
Update 1.07 has just been uploaded on Steam to correct these issues:

- we have identified a bug which caused animations to play incorrectly and hits not to be detected: this has been fixed and is included in the 1.07 update.

- from a gameplay side, we probably made too many changes at the same time; we have therefore reverted changes made to the dodge mechanic, and done some tweaks to ranges and guard impact of previously changed attacks.

We are actively working on other remaining issues (loading and disconnect issues in Combat Trials, amongst others).

Also, we want to thank all the members of the community who are actively discussing the game's balancing, sending us feedback, and helping us improve Absolver. The game is still far from perfect, so it's super useful for us to have direct feedback when an update is pushed - sometimes we'll get things wrong, but we certainly intend to be attentive to feedback, reactive in updates, and keep working hard in the weeks and months to come to make the game as good as possible !

TL;DR: please keep posting :)

Thanks again for the support,
Sloclap team

Full discussion thread:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1496741765131533913/
Sep 22, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove
As you know, the 1.06 update was pushed on Wednesday, and while some changes were beneficial to the experience, others negatively impacted it.
Update 1.07 has just been uploaded on Steam to correct these issues:

- we have identified a bug which caused animations to play incorrectly and hits not to be detected: this has been fixed and is included in the 1.07 update.

- from a gameplay side, we probably made too many changes at the same time; we have therefore reverted changes made to the dodge mechanic, and done some tweaks to ranges and guard impact of previously changed attacks.

We are actively working on other remaining issues (loading and disconnect issues in Combat Trials, amongst others).

Also, we want to thank all the members of the community who are actively discussing the game's balancing, sending us feedback, and helping us improve Absolver. The game is still far from perfect, so it's super useful for us to have direct feedback when an update is pushed - sometimes we'll get things wrong, but we certainly intend to be attentive to feedback, reactive in updates, and keep working hard in the weeks and months to come to make the game as good as possible !

TL;DR: please keep posting :)

Thanks again for the support,
Sloclap team

Full discussion thread:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1496741765131533913/
Sep 20, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove


Hi everyone,

We've just pushed the 1.06 update on all platforms and it will be rolling out today! Sorry for the delay on this, a couple of bugs took a little longer than expected. Full patch notes are below, the main bugfixes are the powers/items loss issue, crashes during bosses cutscenes, and disconnects during Combat Trials which should happen far less frequently now.

https://youtu.be/I2oW22-CEMw

If you have new issues after this update, or that previous issues are still happening, please let us know at support_PC@sloclap.com, indicating which region you're playing from!

We know that it can be frustrating to get duplicates as rewards in Combat Trials, and we wanted to thank everyone for their support until now, so we've added new masks in the Guidance Bridge; rest assured we're also working hard at reworking the loot system and the end-game rewards, but in the meantime, we wanted to make new masks available to everyone. These masks are inspired by Devolver games, and we think they're pretty cool, so we hope you like them too ! These masks won't be there forever, so grab them while you can :)

Thanks again,
Sloclap Team

Full Patch Notes: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1496741765123603943/
Sep 20, 2017
Absolver - br33dlove


Hi everyone,

We've just pushed the 1.06 update on all platforms and it will be rolling out today! Sorry for the delay on this, a couple of bugs took a little longer than expected. Full patch notes are below, the main bugfixes are the powers/items loss issue, crashes during bosses cutscenes, and disconnects during Combat Trials which should happen far less frequently now.

https://youtu.be/I2oW22-CEMw

If you have new issues after this update, or that previous issues are still happening, please let us know at support_PC@sloclap.com, indicating which region you're playing from!

We know that it can be frustrating to get duplicates as rewards in Combat Trials, and we wanted to thank everyone for their support until now, so we've added new masks in the Guidance Bridge; rest assured we're also working hard at reworking the loot system and the end-game rewards, but in the meantime, we wanted to make new masks available to everyone. These masks are inspired by Devolver games, and we think they're pretty cool, so we hope you like them too ! These masks won't be there forever, so grab them while you can :)

Thanks again,
Sloclap Team

Full Patch Notes: http://steamcommunity.com/app/473690/discussions/0/1496741765123603943/
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